11 ‘Harmless’ Habits That Are Actually Causing Your Insomnia

Some of the steps you think will make for a better night’s sleep may actually contribute to your insomnia.

You keep a different sleep schedule on the weekends

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“If I had one sleep tip, it would be to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day,” says sleep medicine doctor and psychologist Michael Breus, PhD, who runs the website thesleepdoctor.com. “Your body craves this consistency.” If you go to sleep and wake up later on the weekends, don’t expect to be able to fall asleep at your weekday bedtime Sunday night, he says. Experts have named this insomnia cause “social jet lag,” as you’re effectively forcing your body to toggle between two different time zones every week. Here are some secrets to a better night’s sleep, straight from sleep doctors.

You go to sleep too early

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Ninety percent of insomniacs hit the hay too soon, estimates Breus. It sounds counterintuitive, which is the main reason this is one of the most common insomnia causes. But despite what your intuition might tell you, staying up later signals to your body’s homeostatic system that you need more sleep, so when you do finally go to bed, you’ll conk out sooner. In cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), sleep doctors often start with your wakeup time, then count backward about six to seven hours. A 6:30 a.m. wakeup, for example, might mean bed at midnight instead 10:30 p.m. Restricting your time in bed sends a message to your body that you are more active and need the sleep when you try for it, says Colleen Carney, PhD, director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada and author of Goodnight Mind: Turn Off Your Noisy Thoughts and Get a Good Night’s Sleep.